My Reading Running and Recipe spot, plus a Ten of the Best on the occasional weekend.

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Finding Jack by Gareth Crocker

“I’m looking for something different...” This is it. Finding Jack. Like me, you may think that you won’t enjoy it, and that may put you off attempting it. It’s a great story, well told.

Fletcher Carson signs up to fight in Vietnam after a personal tragedy and he meets a dog – Jack, with whom he has a connection.

The story quickly develops, and you are drawn in to a soldier’s conflicted life. His love for Jack is moving, and the action in the novel is fast-paced. The events are dramatic – unfolding with the backdrop of war-torn Vietnam providing tension and setting that add to the poignancy of the drama. There are arguably a few too many “movie-type” moments of hero saves the day, which may irritate readers preferring more realistic tales, but hey, we are talking about Americans in Vietnam, they must all be heroes, right?

This is Gareth Crocker’s first novel. He knows his writing business. It was an easy read – I finished in a day. It had moments when I laughed out loud, moments when I cried real tears and many times when I paused to admire the beauty of the words and a story well told. This is a book that I will never forget, and I am glad I read it.